Cautions on Glaucoma Eye Care Medication

On June 4, 2008 while making an appearance on CNBC, David Pyott, of Allergen Pharmaceuticals, announced a new cosmetic product that will grow and thicken your eyelashes. Allergen Pharmaceuticals develops and commercializes products for the eye care, neuromodulator, skin care, and other specialty markets including Botox, Alphagan, and Refresh.

In the next two months, he said that the company will file for FDA approval to take their Lumigan drug and turn it into the next hottest cosmetic product on the market next to Botox. This product is to be released in the summer of 2009. You can listen to the CNBC video interview of Mr. Pyott "here". He explains that this product is just topical and doesn't go into the bloodstream, or it is a small amount.

As a Glaucoma patient, I have not had a good experienced with my own two Glaucoma drugs. I have had Glaucoma now for 2 years. Glaucoma is a silent killer if it is not treated. Half of the people who have Glaucoma don't even know they have it. Glaucoma is a slowly developing disease. The only way you can detect it early is with yearly eye screenings. By the time Glaucoma displays its symptoms, an individual would have serious eye loss.

There are two ways to treat Glaucoma, surgery or prescription eye drops. I take two types of glaucoma drugs, Travatan and Betimol. My Glaucoma drugs do have warnings about the drug stimulating eyelash growth. The experience I have had with these drugs is that it is true that your eyelashes do grow; however the also grow inwardly towards the eyeball which can be irritating.

How would you like to live with a feeling of something always touching your eyeball? Yet, you have to go to the eye doctor to get the eyelashes pulled out. I can't do it myself because the location is dangerous next to they eyeball. In addition with taking these drugs I experience daily dry eyes.

Regarding the medicine not going into the blood system, Mr. Pyott needs to rethink that claim. Eye drops are absorbed through eye blood vessels. I can't believe that it doesn't go into the main blood system.

This new product is supposed to create a $500 million dollar industry for Allergan. I hope anyone who contemplates taking these drops for cosmetic reasons, think carefully on what is really going into your body. If I had a choice not to take these drugs, I wouldn't.